The fractional-jet company, whose clients take a stake in a
plane in exchange for flight hours, expects to clear final
regulatory hurdles in China in June or July, Chief Executive
Officer Jordan Hansell said in an interview yesterday at the
Bo’ao Forum in Hainan province. NetJets will start managing
private planes before introducing the fractional model, he said.

NetJets expects aircraft management “to be a very large
market over time and it could be as large as we have in the
United States or even larger in a relatively short period of
time,” Hansell said. “Ultimately, fractional ownership may be
the same and surpass the U.S.”

Private jet ownership in China is expected to grow more
than sevenfold by 2032 from 2012 levels, according to forecasts
from Bombardier, a Canadian builder of trains and small jets.
The country will account for roughly 9 percent of the worldwide
business jet fleet in 2032, up from less than 2 percent in 2012.

Hansell is helping to turn around a business that Buffett
once called his “No. 1 worry.” NetJets lost money for the
Omaha, Nebraska-based firm from its purchase in 1998 through
2009 and would have gone broke without the parent’s support,
Berkshire’s billionaire chairman has written in his annual
letters to shareholders. The unit had more jets than it needed,
Berkshire said in a 2010 filing.

The Chinese government will need to liberalize its airspace
and build more infrastructure for NetJets’ mainland business to
surpass the U.S. market, Hansell said. China’s military controls
all airspace in the country and short-notice flights are
difficult.

President Xi Jinping’s austerity campaign can only help
NetJets’ business in the country, he said. Partial ownership can
increase efficiency, compared with owning a plane outright, he
said.